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City targeting Bayliss' pension

Health insurance at stake for former Lowell License Commissioner

By Lyle Moran, lmoran@lowellsun.com

Updated:
02/22/2013 12:00:24 PM EST

Walter Bayliss. Sun file photo

LOWELL - The city's Retirement Board is reviewing whether to strip former License Commission Chairman Walter Bayliss Jr. of his pension, and is expected to make a final decision about the issue at its monthly meeting on Monday.

One focus of the review is whether Bayliss, who served on the License Commission for 17 years, should have kept serving on that board after he put in for retirement in 2006 and started receiving a pension, according to two board members, Bayliss and City Manager Bernie Lynch.

The board is also examining whether Bayliss should lose his $876.96 annual pension from the city's retirement system because of alleged discrepancies with his buyback of prior city service, according to board minutes obtained by The Sun.

Bayliss, 68, would lose the health insurance he and his wife have through the city if he is removed from the retirement system. Bayliss has previously suffered two heart attacks.

The board's review officially began Sept. 28, just weeks after Bayliss agreed to resign from the License Commission.

Bayliss' decision to resign was part of his settlement with the city regarding his lawsuit to overturn his removal from the license board by Lynch last summer. Lynch had pointed to Bayliss' behavior, his comments at meetings, and his handling of cases to justify his decision to remove Bayliss.

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At the board's December meeting, Lowell Chief Financial Officer Tom Moses, Lynch's appointment to the board, made a motion to rescind Bayliss' retirement because of discrepancies with the buyback of his service, according to the minutes.

Moses' motion was defeated 3-2, with Wright joining Moses in favor. Voting in opposition were Mahoney, and board members William Desrosiers and Michael Brennan.

According to Bayliss, he bought back his service in the military and on the Lowell Memorial Auditorium board of trustees to count toward his retirement. His retirement was approved in fall 2006.

Shannon Dowd, the Retirement Board's administrator, said Bayliss had accumulated 11 years and five months in the system when he retired. Those 55 years old and over can retire after securing at least 10 years of time in the system.

Desrosiers, a former city fire chief, said other issues were discussed prior to the vote, including Bayliss serving on the license board while he was retired. But Desrosiers said the board was not presented with enough information to take the "drastic action" of removing Bayliss from the retirement system.

"We asked for documentation to see if there were any discrepancies," Desrosiers said. "There were not any. It was just hearsay."

Mahoney agreed.

"I did not see anything that was wrong," Mahoney said.

Brennan did not respond to a request for comment.

Wright and Moses declined comment on their votes.

In a recent letter to the board, Bayliss questioned whether Moses and Wright should recuse themselves from the vote because as city employees they are "personally familiar with my case and the problems I have had with the current city manager in recent times as my tenure on the License Commission came to a conclusion."

After Moses' defeated motion, the board voted unanimously to seek more information from Lynch and Bayliss about whether Bayliss had ever resigned from the License Commission prior to his more recent resignation and if he was reappointed.

In 2006, Bayliss put in for his retirement when Lynch began the process of removing board members from the city's health insurance who were not otherwise entitled to the benefit, according to documents Bayliss and Lynch supplied to the board. Bayliss said he retired because he could not afford to lose his health insurance and would be able to maintain it as a retiree.

On the day he handed in his retirement papers in 2006, Bayliss says he was told by the Retirement Office he could stay on as a license commissioner because it was no longer a full-time job.

Dowd did not respond to a request for comment on that issue.

Lynch, who reappointed Bayliss in 2008, said he was unaware Bayliss was receiving both a pension and a boardmember stipend. "I assumed he was doing one or the other, but not both," Lynch said.

Public-employee retirees are able to keep working in the public sector after retiring and receive pay, but there are some restrictions, said Joseph Connarton, executive director of the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission.

Prior to a change in state law that went into effect for those retiring after last April, retirees could work in the public sector if their earnings, when added to their pension allowance, did not exceed the salary from the position they retired from.

From July 1, 2002, to his resignation in September, Bayliss was paid $108.33 a month or approximately $1,300 per fiscal year, according to the city auditor's office.

If Bayliss' License Commission post was the position he was considered to have retired from, Bayliss' combined earnings from his pension and board service would have exceeded the salary of the position he retired from, according to a Sun tally.

Michael Sacco, the retirement board's attorney, did not respond to a request for comment Thursday on how much Bayliss should have been allowed to earn from public employment after he retired.

Public employees receiving a pension also cannot work more than 960 hours in a calendar year, which translates to 80 hours a month. It is unclear how many hours Bayliss has worked while serving on the board since retiring.

Bayliss said he thought after his settlement with the city and Lynch, his dealings with the city would be over. He also he thinks there is an "ulterior motive" for the issue being brought to the board's attention, but declined to elaborate.
"I don't understand the whole thing," Bayliss told The Sun. "It is mind-boggling. It is a terrible way to end my time serving the city."

Lynch told The Sun he had nothing to do with the issue coming forward to the Retirement Board and denied there was an ulterior motive.

The manager said that during settlement discussions regarding Bayliss' lawsuit against the city, Lynch was aware the Retirement Board was reviewing Bayliss' retirement, which would impact Bayliss' health insurance.

"We told him we can't interfere with what happens at the Retirement Board," Lynch said.

Mahoney said he expects the matter to be completed one way or the other at Monday's meeting.

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